This first rifle was made
for use as a display rifle in the Gun Shop. The engraving and carving
were kept fairly simple in an effort to represent a Revolutionary War
period rifle. Plain maple was selected for that same reason.

The barrel was one of the
first hand forged examples that Wallace and I made at the Deane Forge in
1966. We had no wrought iron at that time, so it was welded up out of
1010 mild steel. We found steel harder to work with than wrought iron
because the higher carbon makes it easier to burn. The barrel came out at .53 caliber and just a bit under 40
inches long.

When it was made this rifle had a lock made by Russ Hamm. It was
marketed as a copy of a lock from a Peter Gonter rifle. In about 1974
that lock was replaced with a more reliable Siler lock assembled by Bud
Siler.

These pictures were taken in 1976 after the lock had been switched.

Note all the wear on the rear corner of the cheek piece. This occurs
when display rifles are handled by thousands of folks visiting the shop
and they slide them about on the bench top when picking them up and
putting them down.